


shōku

by AwayLaughing



Series: the unseen [12]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Background - Freeform, Family Drama, Gen, Not Filler Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-27 19:45:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12088068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwayLaughing/pseuds/AwayLaughing
Summary: After the death of the woman who rescued her off the streets, Ran has to make a choice. To stay in the world she's been brought into, or try and find her way in a completely new one.





	shōku

Ran watched the parade of people entering the manor, weighed down with luggage or yelling orders to one another – and tried to feel anything. Excitement, at having a full house finally. Resentment at having her home invaded. Something – anything – but it did not come, drowned out by the shock that had lingered over Hanako-gozen’s sudden death.

 

“Ran-san?” an unfamiliar woman called out to her. “Daisuke-sama wishes to speak to you, at your earlier convenience.”

 

“I’m sure he does,” Ran muttered to herself. The new woman was too far to notice – as Ran would never be so obvious – and so they just shared tight smiles as Ran came up beside her.

 

“I’m to take you to him,” the woman said.

 

“No need, Mai-san,” Kaitos deep voice was quiet, but cut through the buzz around them. A few people stopped to stare, but he paid them no mind.

 

“Kaito-san,” Mai-san said, smile growing more wooden. “I thought you were to speak with Daisuke-sama?”

 

“And I have done so,” he said, “he had concerns about the estate finances I was more than happy to allay.” Ran watched in amusement as Mai’s smile slipped for a moment. “And it is Kaito-sama, to you Mai-san.”

 

The smile slipped entirely, and Ran watched as the two servants stared one another down. After a few heartbeats, Mai-san dipped a slightly rude bow. “My apologies, Kaito-sama,” she said.

 

Kaito waved his hand carelessly. “Of course,” he said. “You’re young and inexperienced, you will learn.”

 

“Thank you, Kaito-sama, for your understanding,” she said, edges of her lips actually going white. Ran carefully kept her face smooth, pretending to be more preoccupied with the nearby stretch of garden than what was happening in front of her. Finally Mai swooshed away and Ran allowed herself a smile, looking up at Kaito.

 

“What was that?” she asked, managing to keep her laughter to the edge of her words. He smiled impishly back – a look that should have been out of place on his gracefully aged face.

 

“Mai-san is Haruka-gozen’s personal maid. I’ve been advised she has a forceful personality that had previously allowed her to leverage more power in the household,” he sighed, “I can only imagine. Genji was always a nervous fellow, it’s why my Lady put him in charge of a skeleton crew in a house she never used.”

 

“Poor Genji-san,” Ran said. “Are you liable to get in trouble?”

 

Kaito laughed, a barking thing that made the servants trying to negotiate a large chest up the stairs almost topple over. “There is a dumbwaiter for that sort of thing, gentlemen,” Kaito called. “Koji!”

 

“Yessir,” the small household runner who was Kaito’s unofficial charge appeared from nowhere.

 

“Show the gentlemen how to properly get their things up stairs. Then go and collect Ai-san, Renichi and Taida-san and tell them to get out here and corral the newcomers.”

 

“Yessir,” Koji said, scampering off to the stairs.

 

Ran shook her head. “Is there a reason you didn’t do this before?” she asked.

 

“My job is to make everyone else look effortlessly competent,” he said. “The point is to be unnoticed – so the only way to keep my job was to not do it. I would hate to mislead my lord into thinking his household have any idea what they’re doing.”

 

This time Ran did giggle. “Always so clever, Kaito.”

 

“It’s not my first change of master,” he said.

 

The reminder stole her amusement from her, and she fought to find, if not calm, the cold indifference she’d managed to surround herself in earlier in the week. Kaito’s warm hand on her shoulder undermined her, however, and so she was forced to feign neutrality.

 

“I know, Ran-san,” he said, leading them down the hall toward the private sitting rooms. “Are you well?”

 

“I miss her,” Ran admitted. “I hate that she’s gone. I hate that they’ve descended on this house like locusts on a corpse.” _I hate them_.

 

“I know,” he said again. “It is hard for us all.”

 

“I know,” she said. “I just...they never even visited her.” They were at the door to the family sitting room, now. She could hear the children giggling. She stopped there, trying to resettle herself. Kaito’s hand fell from her shoulder, and she jumped when he came in front of her. Gently, he started tugging at her kimono, fixing her into nearly impossible to keep perfection. After a moment he pulled back, eyeing her critically.

 

“Shoulders back,” he said and she followed his orders. “Are your hands shaking?” she held them out. “No – good. Knock twice and enter, do not wait to be called in. You may not be his sister, but you are his equal.”

 

She nodded. “Of course,” she said. Then she took a deep breath. “Thank you, Kaito. Dismissed.”

 

He smiled deeply at her. “Good luck, Ran-sama.”

 

* * *

 

 

The music flowed out of the ballroom without being grating, a testament, Hanako-gozen had always said, to the architect’s mastery at his craft. Right now, it was aggravating. Ran wished to be away from the party – but it seemed to follow her down the halls. Even as the music petered out, clusters of nobility dotted the whole main floor.

 

A few called to her, and she dismissed them with curt _good evenings_ as she made her retreat. Taking the stairs as fast as was possible in a furisode, she nodded once to he servant at the top of the stairs meant to keep nosey guests away before dashing to her rooms.

 

Akira was already there, somehow and for a long moment she stared at him. Finally she squared her shoulders and tilted her chin. “It’s impossibly rude to let yourself into a woman’s rooms,” she told him. “And if you try anything I will stab you until you stop moving.”

 

Akira didn’t smile or sit up from the chair at her vanity. “Lucky for us both, I have no inclination to accost young women,” he said.

 

She said nothing.

 

“You have not stayed at a single party, this season,” he said, after letting the silence stretch.

 

“There is a war going on,” she said. “I am not in the mood to party, given that fact.”

 

Akira tutted, standing and smoothing down his hakama. “Do you think we don’t know that? We are proud supporters of the Daimyō – the right compliments today could lead to donations to the war effort.” He eyed her, “mother had me believe you were intelligent despite your...disadvantage childhood.”

 

Usually Ran could shrug off that sort of comment – but not tonight. Tonight she snarled silently at him, anger and frustration coming to a broiling point. “Your guests aren’t quite so amendable to your plans,” she snapped. “If I can see that with my _disadvantages_ than you’ve no excuses.”

 

“Temper, Ran-kun,” he said, stepping closer. Despite his earlier words she felt a spark of fear. Akira was tall – and while not particularly broad he was healthy and larger than she. She did not draw away however, raising her chin to keep their eyes locked. He only came a few steps forward – enough to intimidate but nothing more. “Believe it or not, I know my business. I start to wonder if you know yours?”

 

Ran bit her tongue to keep from answering right away. That Akira had taken her one job when he swooped in.

 

“You’re not meant for this life, Ran,” he said bluntly. “I am not sending you away – mother’s one request was you be kept comfortable. But think about it.”

 

* * *

 

 

As much as she hated Akira – and his wife and his staff and everything they represented – she could not ignore his words. For weeks his words came unbidden to her. When she was shopping, or working on her readings or trying to sleep.

 

_You’re not meant for this life._

 

It had been easy to ignore when Hanako-gozen was still alive. She’d been able to focus on learning things – writing and maths and tea ceremonies. And on helping Hanako-gozen as she got older. Now though, even her studies did not have the enthralling nature they’d had six years ago. She appreciated them still of course, but the truth was she’d caught up a long time ago and most people her age were finished their studies. Most girls her age in these households were learning how to keep the books, or direct the staff or whatever befit their stations.

 

Ran did not have a station. She was not a daughter of Hanako-gozen who could be prepared for marriage, for all she’d been given a lady’s education. She was certainly not staff and they had no inclination to bring her into their ranks. And even if they did, she would never tolerate serving Akira and his family.

 

She had no training to run a business. She was not an artist. She could still pick pockets and get past any unsealed lock as well as any shinobi, but she did not want to go back to that life. As it was, that life wouldn’t have her back. Like as not, should she try, she’d end up in a so called _tea house_ , serving men’s pleasure and nothing more.

 

“Ran-san?” Kaito settled next to her in her garden seat. “You’ve been preoccupied.”

 

“Thinking,” she said. “About the future.”

 

“Ah,” he said. “A complicated thing, now.”

 

“It was always complicated,” she admitted. “Hanako-gozen just protected me from that fact.” She turned to him. “Did she have plans for me?”

 

Kaito was silent for a moment, eyes fixed on a rose bush. “She was lonely, she wanted someone to talk to. Someone who remembered what it used to be like. You aren't nearly old enough to remember the clan wars, but you have a starkly different life experience than any other noble child - biological or otherwise. I don't know if she planned anything else for you, other than to be by her side. Perhaps she thought that your life experience could be of use, here in the south where we're so isolated from the wars.”

 

Ran picked at her sleeve. “I see,” she said finally. “She never said anything.”

 

“She loved you,” the words stole the breath from her lungs. “I think she planned to get as much time with you as possible. She perhaps did not intend it to be the rest of her life however...” he trailed off.

 

Ran swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat. “I suppose even Hanako-gozen could not out plan death.”

 

He smiled, the gesture creasing his eyes until they almost disappeared. He too was getting old, she realized. There was even grey at his temples. “Don’t look so sad, Ran-san,” he said, patting her knee. “Death is not the end, for all it takes from us here on this plane.”

 

“I know,” she said. “Thank you, Kaito-san.”

 

“I am here for you,” he said. “Any time.”

 

* * *

 

 

The day Ran left Miyazaki house was a rather grey day. And that did not even include the staff who came to see her off, some of them crying the whole while. Even Kaito was a little wet eyed, though he smiled proudly down at her as she waved goodbye from the back of the wagon. It was to take her close to Konoha, though apparently she would have to walk about half a day more beyond her drop off point. Five days in total to get there – six maybe, if there was a new detour they did not yet know about.

 

“We might even be in luck,” one of the caravan guards – hired from militia not actual shinobi – said. “If we meet a convoy headed to Konoha they’ll probably take you for free. Then you won’t need to walk much at all.”

 

“I don’t mind walking,” she said, smoothing her travelling pants. Years of wearing kimono had defamiliarized her with the more sturdy fashions, and she found them oddly distracting.

 

“Important business, then?” he asked.

 

“I suppose so,” she said. When she did not elaborate he shrugged and fell back slightly to speak to another guard. Ran did not mind. She had a whole life to think about.


End file.
